Top News for February 18, 2014

New revelations from the Edward Snowden documents published on The Intercept today reveal that the US and UK governments targeted WikiLeaks and other activists groups, as well as visitors to the WikiLeaks web site. Documents from the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, reveal the real-time harvesting of user IP addresses, and the collection of search terms used on other sites, such as Google Search. Read more at firstlook.org.

Bitcoin ATMs are coming to the United States. The company that makes the ATMs, called Robocoin, said today that Bitcoin kiosks will be installed in Seattle and Austin. Read more at reuters.com.

Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone will have a fingerprint sensor built into the home button, similar to the Apple iPhone 5S, according to a new report. Read more at sammobile.com.

Google has acquired the Israeli startup SlickLogin, an Israeli startup that replaces passwords with sound-based authentication. A supporting site sends an encrypted code via ultrasonic sound to a smartphone, which transmits the code to the server for authentication. SlickLogin’s technology optionally works over WiFi or Bluetooth. Read more at wsj.com.

Apple may have thought about buying Tesla. A new report in the San Francisco Chronicle says Apple mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk last spring. Read more at sfgate.com.